This is the moment an armed robber points a gun at a cash-in-transit driver in a shocking daylight heist on a busy high street - not realising the box he was snatching was empty.

Craig Ferry sat in wait as a G4S worker made a stop at a branch of Barclays Bank, then ran towards him brandishing an imitation firearm and demanding the cash box.

Minutes earlier he would have got his hands on £25,000 but Ferry timed it all wrong by striking after the driver had delivered the money to the bank, meaning it was all for nothing.

A court heard the victim was left shaken and shocked by the brazen raid on Wallsend High Street on a Tuesday morning in July.

Now Ferry, 24, who was almost knocked down by a bus as he carried out the raid, has been jailed for five years after admitting robbery, stealing his getaway car and driving while disqualified.

Locking him up at Newcastle Crown Court, Mr Recorder Preston said: “I’ve seen the CCTV footage and you can be seen clearly holding your arm out, holding the imitation firearm directly at the victim, who must frankly have been terrified.

Craig Ferry, jailed for five years for robbery of a cash-in-transit driver outside a bank on Wallsend High Street

“As he puts it, he had no reason not to believe it was a genuine gun. It must have been horrific and terrifying for him.

“There was clearly an element of planning. You had a stolen vehicle, an imitation firearm and your face was covered with a hood.

“But I accept there were certain amateurish elements.

“You stole an empty box and an hour later you were still wearing the same clothes and were in the same car.

“People like the victim work hard every day and work in jobs which are dangerous because they have to handle large amounts of cash and people like you make them vulnerable to attack.”

The victim, who is in his 50s, parked his armoured van outside Barclays Bank, on Wallsend High Street, around 9.40am on July 26.

Prosecutor Neil Pallister said: “He started making collections and deliveries to the bank, he was there about half an hour or so.

“Before the robbery, he delivered just over £25,000 to the bank.

“However the robbery took place when he was returning to his vehicle with an empty cash case.

“As he proceeded to the rear of his van to put the empty cash case in, his attention was drawn to the opposite side of the road, where he saw the defendant getting out of a red Seat Leon parked in the taxi rank.

“The defendant was running towards him with his hood pulled up and the bottom part over his mouth. The man had his right arm outstretched and was holding a small barrelled silver weapon.

“The robber sprinted towards him with the weapon pointed towards him and said ‘Give me the box’..”

Stills taken from CCTV footage of armed robbery on Wallsend high street

Ferry was given the empty box and ran back to the stolen Seat and sped off, turning left through a no entry sign.

Police later found the imitation firearm, which turned out to be a cigarette lighter, discarded nearby.

The G4S driver said in a statement read to the court: “He pointed the weapon at me, making me fear for my life.

“I was left shocked and shaken by what happened.

“I had no reason not to believe the weapon was real and would be used on me.

“This is not what you expect when you go to work for the day.

“Since the attack I’ve had several sleepless nights and I’ve become more aware of people in the street while doing my work.

“But I still do my job and I’m not going to allow this man to continue to affect me.”

Ferry, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to robbery, aggravated vehicle taking and driving while disqualified. He was jailed for five years and banned from driving for four years.

He has 22 previous convictions and was locked up for four years in 2009 for a robbery, carried out with someone else, in which a man was assaulted with an iron bar and suffered a fractured leg.

Andrew Walker, defending, said Ferry was on drugs at the time and claimed the raid was not long in the planning.

He added: “What he took was an empty security box, not one filled with money.

“Had it been professionally planned, it’s likely he would have got the money.

“It was badly executed and likely to fail and did fail.

“It almost failed from the moment he left the car as he almost got knocked over by a bus.

“He has a young child and his partner is pregnant. He knows he is the author of his own downfall.”